Apparatus for forming and moving vertical loops in a strip of material

ABSTRACT

A festoon steamer comprising a set of supporting rods travelling through a closed circuit with a horizontal track in which the web is hanging down in loops from said rods, the loops being consecutively formed in a portion of the circuit ahead of said horizontal track and each loop being only picked up by a rod after its completion.

United States Patent 1191 Koster et al. July 30, 1974 [54] APPARATUS FORFORMING AND MOVING 2,814,192 11 /19s7 Brunner 226/105 x VERTICAL LoopsIN A STRIP OF 2,831,677 4/1958 Elwood et al 226/107 x 3,1 l l SChlfiChtX [75] Inventors: Wolfgang Koster, Bad

Salzuflen-Schotner; Harald Jentzsch, Brackwede-Quelle, both of Germany[73] Assignee: Stork Amsterdam N.V.,

ArnstelveemNetherlands [22] Filed: Mar. 8, 1972 [21] Appl. No.1 232,744

[52] US. Cl. 226/107, 68/5 D [51] Int. Cl B65h 17/06 [58] Field ofSearch 68/5 D, 5 E; 34/157;

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 578,008 3/1897 Gadd 68/5 EPrimary ExaminerHarvey C. Hornsby Assistant Examiner-Philip R. CoeAttorney, Agent, or Firm-Allen D. Brufsky 5 7] ABSTRACT A festoonsteamer comprising a set of supporting rods travelling through a closedcircuit with a horizontal track in which the web is hanging down inloops from said rods, the loops being consecutively formed in a portionof the circuit ahead of said horizontal track and each loop being onlypicked up by a rod after its completion.

2 Claims, 16 Drawing Figures PATENIEDJuLsomu 26.411

sum 1 [1F 5 PAIENIEUmsomn 3,826,417

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APPARATUS FOR FORMING AND MOVING v VERTICAL LOOPS IN A STRIP or MATERIALBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION of supporting rods suspended only at theirouter ends are movable in circulation, with a horizontal track at. thebeginning. The ends of the rods can be laid upon this track by means ofthe conveyor. The apparatus is further provided with a feed roll at asuitable offset from the track, on which the material of the strip isfed in the form of loops. The loops are supported on the rods movingbetween the feed roll and the track, while beyond the track, the rodsreturn empty in a path under said track.

In the already known devices first of all a loop is formed, in which asupporting rod comes in contact with the strip of material at the outerend of the loop and lifts it up to the level of the track. The speed ofthe supporting rod conveyor thus corresponds with the speed of theadvancing track, whereby the total length of the loop formed ismaintained and the portion of the material between the feed roll and thesupporting rod raising this loop remains rigid. One disadvantage of thisarrangement is that at higher strip feed speed the conveyor places thesupporting rods on the guide with an impact, for which reason theconstruction must either be very robust, or the strip feed speed must bekept very low.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The apparatus for forming and advancing theloops is such that first of all the strip is allowed to form a completeloop and then a supporting rod is allowed to come into contact with thestrip in order to advance this loop to the track whilst at the same timea new loop is formed which has the correct length at the instant atwhich the next supporting rod comes into contact with the strip ofmaterial. 'In this way a saving of time is achieved, which permits areduction in the speed of circulation of the supporting rods.

In accordance with the invention the speed of the conveyor, the lengthof the span between the feed roll and the guide path and the pitch ofthe supporting rods in the conveyor are coordinated with one another andwith the speed of the material of the strip in such a way that everytime a supporting rod is laid on the track a following supporting rodmakes contact with the strip of material. As a consequence the speed ofthe conveyor in proportion to the strip feed speed is a minimum.

SURVEY OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic elevation of a completeequipment according to a first embodiment of the invention,

FIGS. 2 to 7 show schematic elevations of a zone of the equipment asFIG. I, in different stages of the formation of a loop,

FIGS. 8 to 11 are elevations similar to FIGS. 2 to 7, with a zone of anequipment in accordance with another embodiment, in different stages ofthe formation of a loop,

FIGS. 12 and 13 show an elevation and a sectional plan of part of asupporting rod conveyor in which a supporting rod is being carried,

FIG. 14 is an elevation as FIG. 12 with an altered embodiment of asupporting rod,

FIG. 15 is a section along the line XVXV in FIG. 14, and

FIG. 16 is an oblique view partly broken away of a complete installationwith an equipment as FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS:

FIG. I shows schematically an equipment in accordance with the inventionin an installation which is described as a festoon steamer". Thematerial feed is situated at about one third of the height of the loops.It consists of a feed roll 1 which cooperates with a roll 2. A strip 3of material is fed between these parts, that is into a loop-forming zonebetween the feed roll 1 and a rigid track 4. As shown, this can have twoparallel rails pitched apart wider than the maximum width of the strip 3of material. Cylindrical supporting rods 5 are provided at their outerends with circular flanges which can be inserted exactly between therails 4, so that the loops keep their separation but the supporting rods5 touch at the flanges. At the entry 6 to the rigid track 4 thesupporting rods 5 reach the guide. At the outer end 7 of the track 4 thesupporting rods 5 are lifted from the guide by an endless supporting rodconveyor 8. This conveyor 8 has, for example, two endless parallelrunning chains which are guided by guide-flanges 9 and describe acircuit lying mainly below the track 4 on either side of it. Onepossible way of suspending the supporting rods 5 from the chains isexplained below with the aid of FIGS. 12 to 15.

The conveyor 8 brings the supporting rods 5 to the entry 6 and lays themon the track 4. Then the conveyor follows a section 8' near to and belowthe rigid track 4 empty. At the outer end 7 it picks up the supportingrods 5 again and brings them back to the starting point 6 of the track.FIG. 1 illustrates how a supporting rod 10 comes close up to the feedroll 1 for cooperation with the strip 3 of material and picks up a loop11 formed at this point, in order to move it away to the entry 6 to therigid guide 4. g

The length of the low hanging loop 11 is equal to that of the otherformed loops 12. The supporting rod 10 picks up the outer end 13 of theloop 11 without rotating as it does so and without causing slipping ofthe material 3 of the strip. The formation and picking up of the loop 11proceeds according to the schematic elevations of FIGS. 2 to 7. It maybe mentioned that the processed loops at 14, i.e., before the outer end7 of the track 4 are rolled up and at 15 carried away out of theinstallation. The supporting rods 5 are therefore picked up empty at theend 7 and returned to the entry 6.

In FIG. 2 the situation according to FIG. 1 is again shown in detail. InFIG. 3 one observes that the supporting rod 10 picks up the loop 11while maintaining the length of loop In FIG. 4 it already appears thatin accordance with the priciple of the invention the feed speed V isgreater than the conveyor speed V, so that directly behind the upwardsmoving loop 11 a new loop 16 starts to form. At the same time it isprovided that the supporting rod 10 cannot rotate in the circuit andalso that no slip between this supporting rod and the the next loop 16are displayed. It should be observed from this that the supporting rod10 is actually laid on the rigid track 4 in the downwards direction.

It must further be mentioned that in the embodiment according to FIGS. 2to 7 the instant at which the supporting rod 10 is laid on the rigidguide 4 coincides with the instant at which the next supporting rod 17comes in contact with the strip 3 of material in order to pick up theloop 16 just formed. Under these conditions the conveyor speed V can bethe minimum for a given strip feed speed V.

It is nevertheless also possible within the scope of this invention tovarythe speed V of the conveyor 8 so that, for example, the speed of thesupporting rod in the upwards section is relatively high, whereas nextat the entry 6 in the downwards section the conveyor speed drops tozero, so that an impact of the supporting rod 5 on the track 4 isavoided. At the same time the impact of the next supporting rod 17 onthe strip 3 of material will likewise be zero, whereby slip is excluded.Under the last-mentioned assumption the conveyor speed V can alsoincrease further when raising the supporting rod 10, if the clearance tothe next supporting rod 17 is increased. In this case the conveyor speedwhen setting down the supporting rod 10 can. be zero.

7 At this instant the loop 16 is also not yet completely formed and thesupporting rod 17 is not yet in contact with the strip 3 of material.Subsequently the conveyor with increasing speed can at the correctinstant pick up the completely formed loop 16.

In illustration an altered embodiment is displayed in FIGS. 8 to 11, inwhich a feed roll 20 lies at the height of a rigid track 21. Oneadvantage of this embodiment is that the overall height of theinstallation is com pletely determined by the length of the loops to beformed. In addition the length of the supporting rod conveyor 22 in thezone between the feed roll 20 and the track 21 is also less, so that thespeed of this conveyor 22 can be correspondingly reduced.

Many kinds of construction are possible in which the supporting rods aresuspended in the supporting rod conveyor in such a way and alsocooperate with the rigid guide, that rotation is prevented. In FIGS. 1to 11 constructional precautions of that kind are omitted for the sakeof clarity. Instead an example is given in FIGS. 12 and 13 in which thesupporting rods are held by their outer ends 23' in supports 25 open atthe top, which are hinged to hang on the chain 24. Inside the zone ofthe supports 25 the supporting rods are provided at both sides neartheir outer ends with semicircular-flanges 26 which prevent rotation ofthe supporting rod and which at the same time can rest on the rails ofthe rigid track and thus prevent contact betwen the loops. Because ofthe hinged attachment of the supports 25 the chains can both lay thesupporting rods on the rigid track 4 at the entry 6 (FIG. I) and alsopick up the empty supporting rods at the end 7 of the track.

Yet another embodiment of the supporting rods is shown in FIGS. 14 and15. In this embodiment, cylindricai supporting rods 27 are provided onboth sides with an eccentrically forged-on round outer end 28 whichcooperates with a hinged support 29 on the conveyor and at the same timeprojects into the interior so that it can be laid on the rigid guide,while the chain 30 with the supports 29 on both sides of this rigidguide can still be moved away. In this case, too, the loops of thematerial of the strip do not touch the rigid guide, because the diameterof the rods 27 proper is smaller than that of the eccentric round outerends 28.

What we claim is:

1. An apparatus for forming and moving vertical loops in a strip ofmaterial in an installation for the steam treatment of textiles,comprising:

an endless conveyor in which a number of supporting rods suspended onlyat their ends are movable in circulation;

a horizontal track at the beginning of which the ends of the rods can belaid by the conveyor;

a feed roll on which the material of the strip is fed in the form ofloops which are transported on the supporting rods from said feed rolltowards said horizontal track where after being laid by the conveyor therods are solely supported by and advanced on said track, said feed rollbeing offset from the track at a distance and location that permitsformation of a complete loop of material prior to traverse of thedistance from the feed roll to the track by the support rod traveling onthe endless conveyor; and

means associated with said rods for preventing the rotation of said rodswhile being transported from the feed roll to the horizontal track.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1 said last-named means includeswherein eccentric weights attached to the supporting rods adjacenttheirouter ends.

1. An apparatus for forming and moving vertical loops in a strip ofmaterial in an installation for the steam treatment of textiles,comprising: an endless conveyor in which a number of supporting rodssuspended only at their ends are movable in circulation; a horizontaltrack at the beginning of which the ends of the rods can be laid by theconveyor; a feed roll on which the material of the strip is fed in theform of loops which are transported on the supporting rods from saidfeed roll towards said horizontal track where after being laid by theconveyor the roDs are solely supported by and advanced on said track,said feed roll being offset from the track at a distance and locationthat permits formation of a complete loop of material prior to traverseof the distance from the feed roll to the track by the support rodtraveling on the endless conveyor; and means associated with said rodsfor preventing the rotation of said rods while being transported fromthe feed roll to the horizontal track.
 2. An apparatus according toclaim 1 said last-named means includes wherein eccentric weightsattached to the supporting rods adjacent their outer ends.